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Ta-Nedjem's funerary linen auctioned in Paris

On 5 May 2015 an ancient Egyptian painted funerary linen was exhibited in Paris. The rare textile was presented by the auction house PIASA (www.piasa.fr) and was auctioned on Thursday, 18 June, 2015 at 3pm as part of a sale of Old Master Paintings, Furniture & Artefacts.
The canvas was on display at PIASA, 118 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008 Paris on Monday 15 June from 10 am to 7 pm, Tuesday 16 June from 10 am to 7 pm, Wednesday 17 June from 10 am to 7 pm and Thursday 18 June from 10 am to 12 noon.
Ta-Nedjem-296x406.jpg
Funerary canvas of Ta-Nedjem
Most likely from Deir el-Medina
New Kingdom, end of the 18th dynasty
Painted linen
Height: 29 cm
Length: 21 cm
© PIASA

Dating from the New Kingdom and more specifically from the end of the 18th dynasty (c. 1,400-1,300 BC), the funerary painting is executed on a polychrome linen cloth, commonly used for mummy bandages and shrouds. It is said to have been discovered by Bernard Bruyère during his excavations at Deir el-Medina with the French Institute. It seems to have been acquired by Lucien Lépine in Qurna before 1926. In the same year, it came into the possession of Paul Mallon (1884-1975), a Parisian antiquarian.
A handwritten contemporary card with the image and details of the cloth could be viewed at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41227380/Documents/PIASA-18-June-15-Paul-Mallon.pdf - the link is no longer available online.  
A year later, it became part of the collection of Madame Arthur Sachs. Loviton Jeanne (1903-1996) acquired it in 1939 and it has remained in the family until today.

The canvas shows the profile of a seated man looking to the right. In front of him is a pile of offerings. He wears a white, medium-length, pleated kilt and a usekh necklace around his neck. On his head is a short black curly wig topped with an ointment cone. The seat he sits on is black, with animal legs and a high curved back. He holds a piece of cloth in his right hand, while his left hand is extended towards the offerings, consisting of 3 pieces of bread, 3 pieces of vegetables and a piece of meat. In the field in front of him are two columns of hieroglyphs written in black ink. They are read from top to bottom, starting with the one on the right:
1st column: wdn xt nbt nfrt wabt = Offering everything beautiful and pure
2nd column: n kA n tA-nDm mAa xrw  = for the Ka of Ta-Nedjem, true of voice

Images painted on funerary textiles always show the deceased seated in front of an offering table. In some cases, the deceased is accompanied by an official. The only burial cloth found in situ was the one in tomb 1159 of Sennefer. A large painted white linen cloth covered Sennefer's coffin. It contained a painted scene of Sennefer seated in front of an offering table. The inscription reads: "Osiris, Servant in the Place of Truth, Sennefer".
26099478261_b69c047b50_o-003.jpg
Photography © kairoinfo4u

This painted piece of cloth is part of a small corpus of funerary canvases, of which only twenty-two known surviving examples were listed by Khaled el-Enany (BIFAO 110, see bibliography below). Most of these are in major international museums. Three of them share similarities with Ta-Nedjem Square in the way the body of the seated person is painted, so much so that it has been suggested that the same artist may have executed all 4. The other three come from the Louvre, Paris (Linen Square of the Scribe Khonson, late 18th-early 19th dynasty, Inv. N847), the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Linen, late 18th-early 19th dynasty, Inv. 1981.657) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Linen of Hori, late 18th-early 19th dynasty, Inv. 44.2.3).

Ta-Nedjem is not one of the well-known figures from Deir el-Medina. Although Bernard Bruyère's dig diaries (http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/archives/bruyere/) contain the name of Ta-Nedjem preceded by an "f", suggesting that the name belonged to a female, the linen is not mentioned or drawn by Bruyère. Ta-Nedjem is an attested New Kingdom female name, but this does not seem to correspond to the image of the seated man.
Ta-Nedjem's Linen is published by Annie Gasse of the National Centre for Scientific Research, as this new work challenges the various published dates for the number of pieces that make up this corpus.

Provenance of the object:
- Former collection of Lucien Lépine, acquired before 1926 Qurna.
- Paul Mallon (1884-1975), antiquarian, Paris, acquired in 1926.
- Former collection of Madame Arthur Sachs, acquired in 1927.
- Former collection of Jeanne Loviton (1903-1996), acquired in 1939.
- Remained in the family

The Ta-Nedjem linen fetched 374,000 euros ($426,000) at auction in Paris on Thursday 18 June.
The winning bid was made by telephone and the identity of the buyer was not disclosed. Bidding started at 50,000 euros and was over in a matter of minutes, organisers said.

www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3129705/Rare-ancient-Egyptian-shroud-goes-hammer-Paris.html

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Sources:
1. K. el-Enany, “Un carré de lin peint au musée de l’Agriculture du Caire (inv. 893)” dans BIFAO 110, Le Caire, 2010, pp. 35-45.
2. Y. Volokhine, L’art du contour, catalogue d’exposition, Paris, 2013, p. 227, n° 80.
Mummies & magic. The funerary arts of ancient Egypt, catalogue d’exposition, Boston, 1988, p. 135, n° 71.
3. W. C. Hayes, The scepter of Egypt, New York, 1959, p. 320, fig. 202.
Centenaire de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, catalogue d’exposition, Le Caire, 1981, pp. 52-53, n° 38.

Web sites accessed during May 11-17, 2015:
http://www.piasa.fr/sites/default/files/upload/actualites/fichiers/PIASA_Le_carre_de_Ta-nedjem_18_juin_2015_0.pdf
http://english.jschina.com.cn/20728/201505/t2147590.shtml
June 18th 2015:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3129705/Rare-ancient-Egyptian-shroud-goes-hammer-Paris.html

Further bibliography

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